Residents accuse APNU MP of giving preference to party supporters

Over 100 titles for Matthew’s Ridge – GL&SC

Residents of Matthew’s Ridge have accused executive member of the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) Richard Allen of influencing Guyana Lands and Survey officials in fast tracking land titles for party supporters.
A team from the Guyana Lands & Survey Commission (GL&SC) headed by Commissioner Trevor Benn visited Matthews Ridge, North West District in May last to regularise lands owned by residents. Allen was reportedly a part of the team.
When contacted, the Commission stated that Allen was part of the team since he is responsible for that constituency and he also hails from that region.
“He also assisted the team with traversing through those communities”, the Commission through the PR stated.
Nevertheless, the residents believed that Allen was there with a political agenda.
Residents accused Allen of being biased towards APNU supporters and instructed GL&SC officers to put a hold on applications of persons who they presumed were non-supporters of the coalition Government. As such, preference was given to party supporters.
A resident, who was present at the meeting and whose application was put on hold, related that after Allen had a discussion with his party affiliate from the community, they suddenly found discrepancies with her application.
Allen, however, reportedly instructed the officers to process the documentation of known APNU associates.
“He openly told them who to process applications for. I was right there when one of his confederates told him my husband is a PPP and suddenly, he said they have to make further checks regarding my application and up to now I can’t get through but all their people got through with theirs and they will receive their titles soon. They are openly discriminating people and there is no one that we can complain to,” she said.
Another resident, who also spoke anonymously, noted that Allen was overheard telling the officers to deal with party supporters first. “He isn’t a part of GL&SC but it appeared as he was calling the shots. He told officers to hold any processing of titles from persons who they presume are associated another political party, I was listening. Once you’re not a supporter they found all sorts of reasons to pause your application. Allen told the officer to deal with party supporters first,” the resident claimed.
The GL&SC held a land titling exercise in May where they processed applications for titles for residents there who were never allotted titles prior.
Its Public Relations officer Royden James when contacted Thursday said the commission will be distributing more than 100 land titles to those residents by next week.
He said this decision came after resident from the area were never regularised prior to now and they found difficulty in securing loans as they had no documentation to show ownership of their land.
He refuted claims by the residents regarding the distributing of titles to APNU party supporters and said some of the applications that were put on hold were in need of further checks and investigations as those residents claimed that they inherited their land from descendants.
“We needed to ensure that these claims were investigated thoroughly and verified before we issued titles. There is no issue. These residents will get their titles too,” James assured.
Meanwhile, Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo recently challenged Commissioner of the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission (GL&SC) Trevor Benn to bring in the Police over revelations of documents that show massive giveaways of prime lands across the country.
Jagdeo had made several disclosures at his weekly press conference by producing several maps to show allocations of prime lands to persons with connections to the Government.
The following day, however, Benn indicated that he will be calling in the Police to probe how those documents got into the hands of the Opposition Leader. Jagdeo, picking up on the threat, had told the media that he welcomed the investigation but warned that the tables will turn.
Jagdeo had pointed out that four top officials within the Ministry of the Presidency, which falls under the preview of the Head of State, are beneficiaries of large-scale tracts of prime properties and as such, the President must answer to this.

The meeting with Guyana Lands and Survey Commission and residents held at Mathew’s Ridge in May